TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: THE IG NOBEL AND STELLA AWARDS

What's an Ig? Does listening to country music make you want to kill
yourself? And can you get filthy rich by locking yourself in a
storage unit? Find answers to all these questions in today's
TOURBUS. Read on!

When Patrick and I started the TOURBUS newsletter back in 1995, it
was one of the first sponsored email newsletters. We never expected
that people would actually *thank us* for including advertising, but
they do! Lots of people have written to say thanks for introducing
them to our sponsors, and InkJetsRus is often mentioned.

THE IG NOBEL AWARDS

Surely you've heard of the Nobel Prize, which is awarded for great
achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace.
But have you heard about the IG NOBEL Prize? The Igs, which honor
individuals whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced"
are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and
take a good-natured poke at some remarkably goofy things done in
the name of science. This year's Ig Nobel Prizes, sponsored by the
science humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research", were just
awarded at a gala ceremony on September 30th at Harvard University
and included:

--> MEDICINE: AW SHOOT! COUNTRY'S A KILLER

Researchers Steven Stack and James Gundlach had this crazy idea that
listening to country music just might be depressing enough to make
some people want to buy the proverbial farm. So they analyzed the
suicide rates of 49 metropolitan areas and found that indeed, the
more airtime devoted to country music, the greater the suicide rate.
The research doesn't mention anything about people killing neighbors
who play their country music too loud.

--> PUBLIC HEALTH: UMM, YOU GONNA EAT THAT?

Thanks to Illinois high school student Jillian Clarke, you can scoop
up that piece of toast that fell butter-side down, and eat it without
fear. Clarke has once and for all validated the revered maxim known
as "The Five Second Rule" which states that if food falls to the floor
it's safe to pick it up and eat it within five seconds. Her research
shows that there is remarkably little bacteria on the typical floor,
and that women are MORE likely than men to invoke the Rule. Perhaps
Jillian's next project will put me at ease about pizza that's been
left on top of the fridge for 24 hours.

--> ENGINEERING: YOU'VE GOT A POINT THERE

You can tip your hat to the father and son team of Frank and Donald
Smith for patenting the comb-over. In December of 1975, when the rest
of us were doing the Bump to the music of "Fly, Robin, Fly" the Smiths
were busy filing US Patent #4,022,227 which described "a method of
hair styling to cover partial baldness using only the hair on a
person's head."

You can read all about the IG NOBEL prizes and peruse the archives
of past winners here:

THE STELLA AWARDS

If you've been online for more than, say, a week, you've probably had
your share of e-mails filled with urban legends -- promises that Bill
Gates will send you money if you forward a stupid e-mail, some guy in
Africa has $200 million in cash for you (if you'll just send $15,000
in shipping costs), and a listing of the most outrageous lawsuits
you've ever seen -- the "Stella Awards".

The problem with all of them is that they ARE urban legends -- none of
them are true. The weird lawsuits in particular have caught people's
attention: they're really going around a lot. Randy Cassingham, the guy
that writes the weekly weird news journal "This is True", got really
tired of the fake "Stella Awards" mails. "What's the point of arguing
about a real problem with fake cases?" he asks. So he decided to DO
something about it: he launched the True Stella Awards, and proves once
again that "Truth is Stranger than Fiction". And thanks to Randy's wit,
they're a lot more amusing, too. The site lists those popular-but-fake
lawsuits (see the "bogus awards" page) and you can get a free e-mail
subscription to the True Stella e-mails too. Highly recommended!